Movie set saved from the dump

Mt Magnet, in the eastern part of the Midwest region of WA, has a rich and diverse history with many colourful characters, but the story of the three murders on the Rabbit Proof Fence probably takes the cake.

Act 1

In 1929, Arthur Upfield, who was one of Australia's leading crime writers of his time, was working on the Rabbit Proof Fence near Mt Magnet.

Working in a small crew, Arthur and his co-workers ate and slept at the Camel Station, which was a small accommodation outpost near the Rabbit Proof Fence. This is where Arthur discussed and plotted with his fellow workers about what would make the perfect murder.

Arthur was writing his new novel, The Sands of Windee, and came up with the idea of creating a hot fire to burn and crush the bones of a murdered man, mixed in with some kangaroo bones to cover-up the murder.

Some time later, when Arthur finished his work and moved away, Snowy Rowles put Arthur's idea into action and murdered three men near Mt Magnet. He disposed of the bodies almost exactly the same way as Arthur described in his book.

This caused some controversy, as the investigation and court case into the murders took place just as Arthur launched his book.

Eventually, Snowy was found guilty and he was hanged in Fremantle in 1931.

Act 2

In 2008, Taylor Media produced a film called 3 Acts of Murder which re-told the story of Arthur Upfield and Snowy Rowles.

The shooting of the film took place near Mt Magnet, where Snowy and Arthur sat and talked all those years ago.

One of the main film sets that was used was the old Camel Station, which was re-created by the production.

Once the film crew had finished shooting the scenes, the Camel Station set was no longer needed and the company asked the Mt Magnet Shire to take the set to the rubbish tip, unless someone wanted it.

Act 3

Kevin Brand, who appeared as an extra in the movie, heard about the proposed dumping of the set and immediately seized on the opportunity to salvage it.

With the Shire’s support in arranging a huge shed to store it in, Kevin spent the next two years re-building the Camel Station set, which he found to be quite difficult. None of the walls were marked and he described it like putting a jigsaw puzzle back together again.

Kevin also had the problem of trying to replace the building’s windows, doors, roof and verandah that were all taken during the film clean up.

Fortunately at the time, some of the Mt Magnet buildings were being renovated. As fast as they were demolishing the old buildings and carting them to the rubbish dump, Kevin was carting them back again and using them for the set.

After two years of hard work, the set is now complete, fully-decked with furniture and objects from the 1920s.

Having grown up in Mt Magnet all his life, Kevin has seen a lot of changes in the town. Kevin remembers the town being much bigger than it is today. He has seen the effects of mining's FIFO (Fly In Fly Out) culture within the community and the many sport fields and facilities that hardly get used anymore.

But there are lots of people in the town, just like Kevin, who are passionate about history. They are all too keen to preserve the many colourful stories that help make up Mt Magnet to what it is today.

The Camel Station set can be viewed behind the Mt Magnet Visitor Centre and Mining and Pastoral Museum.